We’re looking for a children’s or young adult chapter book wherein a wounded white soldier recovering at a slave owner’s home falls in love with a black slave there and teaches her to read. She then shares that knowledge with her daughter, and when caught she faces brutal punishment.
I remember a fiction book from when I was a kid about a boy who was raised in India by his father. But when his father died (and there was a part where I remember the boy going out on the river to dump his father’s cremated ashes), he ends up having to move to the US to live with his grandmother (I think). He was probably middle school aged? He struggles a bit to fit in, but then when his grandmother’s house ends up being threatened by a new highway going through, the boy convinces several of his classmates to come over to the house and they start a hunger strike that ultimately results in the house being saved. Some of those details may be a little shaky, but that’s more or less what I remember. Thanks for any help!
All I remember about this book is that a group of kids (who were maybe related. There were two brothers?) ended up in this absolutely empty valley - there was a plane involved. And they explore this valley - find a cave to live in. And at some point they solve a mystery - a chicken is involved - and they find gold. And then get rescued. This was is the Hardy Boys/Nancy Drew genre. All I remember about the cover is that it had a numeral of sorts on it. Also, in another book in the same series one of the brothers finds a rare bird - a great auk or something.
The book I cannot remember is from late grade school or Junior high (7th grade). It was a spaceship, I think in the backyard with a strange builder or helper to the kids building or traveling on it.
Seeking an older (ages 10-12) children’s book about a boy who works on his family fishing boat named “Gretchen” - describes how they catch the fish (bonito) and sell it on the pier. Don’t remember much else about the plot.
Hello. Looking for a book that my daughter and I read about 4-5 years ago when she was 10 or 11. The story involves a feisty girl who is about that age and is orphaned. She tries to stay at home with her brother but a policeman and a Catholic nun come to take her away. She hits the nun or a priest. She is taken to an orphanage and always believes her brother will come for her. She does see him again but he unable to provide for her. At some functions for the orphanage, she meets a beautiful young woman who is engaged to a handsome, rich man. The orphan’s spirit and determination catch the eye of this woman and somehow they become friends. In the end, the lady inherits a farm out west and breaks her engagement. She takes the orphan with her and they travel west.
I think I read this in the 4th grade (I was born in 1979). This girl was really unhappy at home, so she took a boat and rowed away to an island. On the island she learned to fend for herself. She made a cozy home either in a kind of dug out, or a hollowed out tree. She survives the winter, and eventually returns home feeling much better about herself because she has lost weight and is independent.